Catherine Little, Permanent Secretary to the Cabinet Office was questioned by MP`s on the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACA) yesterday, 3 March, about the progress made in tackling the backlog at Capita, which has caused so much distress and financial hardship for thousands of newly retired Civil Servants, as well as delaying widow(er) pension payments, and ill-health retirement cases, as well as frustration in not being able to access the pension portal.
During the PACA hearing, it was revealed that:
- 8,153 Scheme members had been waiting for pension payments to commence, whilst some require further information for finalisation statements to be issued
- 5,854 Lump-Sum payments have been made to those waiting for their pensions to commence
- 540 “Transitional Support Loans” have been made by Departments, totalling £2.9M
- 458 loan applications have been made to Capita
- Some loans have already been paid back when the lump sum was received
During the questioning by the Parliamentary committee, it was revealed that no less than 122,000 CSPS members are still shut out of the Pension Portal, mainly affecting Scheme members who may have had more than one period of service in the pension scheme. This was due of “a data issue” that the Recovery Taskforce was working on. It is expected that Capita has a target of delivering full functionality by the end of March.
The Recovery Team, led by Angela MacDonald, Second Permanent Secretary at HMRC, had confirmed last week, 27 February, that Capita had committed to making sure that all members who have submitted their forms and have received their pension quote, will receive their lump sum, and in some instances 70% of their Gross arrears, by the end of February (30% will be held for Tax, with adjustments the following month) . The Recovery Team have said are still on track with over 4,000 of the 6,078 outstanding lump sums and arrears having been paid by end of February. All outstanding pension arrears will be paid within the next 8 weeks.
Interest will be paid on delayed sums. More information can be found on the Civil Service Pensions website.
‘Civil Service World‘ reported on the PACA session yesterday, which can be read at the following link:
Pension Scheme crisis: Cat Little explains decision to push ahead with Capita
